One day delay… but here is my contribution for the prompt “write a zine review”…

For day 5 of International Zine Month, I wrote some mini-reviews/descriptions of all the zines I read in June… Check out my reading list:

As usual I read a bunch of perzines as this is one of my favourite zine genres and I just seem to stumble upon them the most. Jellyfish Out of Hell #1 is Tukru’s (of Your Pretty Face is Going Straight to Hell fame) newest zine. It is beautifully riso-printed in turquoise-blue and gold-brown. In it she talks mostly about resolutions for 2018, tattoos and dying her hair. I already mentionedTelegram #37 here, but in June I read #36. This issue is about going to a psychic and what the Maranda learned from it, “peptimism”, and walking at night and dumpster-diving. Ontploffing in mijn Hoofd is a mini-zine written in Dutch with encouraging phrases for different emotions. On the inside of the zine there is a beautiful collage-poster. We are adventurers #1 is a 24 hr zine written by Human Bean Zines in July 2012 with texts about travelling to Amsterdam, reflections on being at and leaving a psychiatric ward, Kate Nash, becoming an aunt, and some book reviews. (Most of these zines I bought from Vampire Sushi distro)

Two super cute DIY mini-zines chock-full of information on how to make soap and detergents safely. These are so nice to read even just for the cute drawings but also very informative and inspiring. I love it when DIY manual zines teach me to be more self-sufficient and encourage environment-friendly living. The author also makes and sells her own lovely soaps.

In June, I also read some poetry zines about various personal topics. I like poetry best when it touches personal and social issues. There are nice layouts in all three zines too. Därin’s zines also include essays and cool cut & paste layouts. Her poems and texts are in Dutch, Swedish, and English. Carly Fink’s collection of poems is “a journey out of my hometown and into the person I am today”.

These two zines are comic/cartoon zines written in French filled with explicit sexual cartoons and images about menstruation. Drop Acid was made together by Sarah Fisthole and Tarte Tatin and La Petite Pute was made by Tarte Tatin during a 24 hour zine event in Brussels. I like the drawing styles and some cartoons are really funny but I’m not sure I understood all the French (and not sure of the title “la petite pute” either)…

These three zines by Marie-Noëlle Wurm are a combination of stories and illustrations with beautiful mysterious black and white lines and patterns (sometimes more figurative, sometimes more abstract). The stories and drawings really fit together and add to each other and to the mysteriousness. I received them for my birthday from E. Thank you, E! What a nice discovery!

This is a 4-page zine about zines, or a metazine, with a basic explanation of what zines are and some curious facts. A gift from a zine friend.

Queens of Chaos is a punk collective in Italy and they made this self-titled feminist zine in English full of texts and drawings about consent, Fat Mike vs Kathleen Hanna, sexism in the punk scene, a dictionary of gender and sexual identities. and how to make your own backpack. It seems very riot grrrl-influenced and I like it. I want more zines like this and more collectives like Queens of Chaos.

Some Wizards vol 1 is part of the (dungeons & dragons-style) zine series of SlowQuest. It is a funny and imaginative little zine telling the stories and backgrounds of several wizards. Lots of fun and nicely made, like all of their zines.

Finally, we have one fanzine too, written by Evie in Dutch, about films. It’s a very personal zine as the best fanzines are, telling stories that go with every film that is mentioned. The films are very diverse, from Lipstick Under My Burkha and Pride to Mean Girls and Heat. At the same time a pleasant and a passionate read.

[Let me know if you want to get in touch with the zinesters for who I didn’t mention a website. Maybe I can help.]

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To read all my posts about International Zine Month, click here or here.